From under the rubble of collapsed buildings, a gut-wrenching smell of decaying
corpses now fills the town. The rats have it good; the one I accidentally stepped
upon was already fat. If there is indeed a plan to clear the concrete rubble in and
around the town, nobody seems to have any clue. But the Balakotis are taking it in
their stride ˇ nose masks are everywhere.

From this destroyed mountainous tourist base town, situated on the banks of the Kunhar
river, a relief group from my university returned today (Thursday, Oct 13, 2005).
We were just one of the dozens of groups of ordinary citizens that were spontaneously
galvanized into action after the enormity of last SaturdayÝs earthquake became apparent.

There is good news. The Mansehra to Balakot road stretch, finally forced open by
huge army bulldozers and earth moving machinery, is now open to relief trucks and
goods donated across the country are piled to the roofs. If there ever was a time
when the people of Pakistan moved together, this is it. Even the armed bandits who
waylay relief supplies ˇ to guard against whom soldiers with automatic weapons stand
at alert every few hundred yards ˇ cannot destroy the euphoria of having this solitary
moment of unspoiled national unity.

Aid from across the world is making its way, and the United States is here too. Double
bladed Chinook helicopters, diverted from fighting Al-Qaida in Afghanistan, weave
their way through the mountains. They fly over the heartland of jihad and the militant
training camps in Mansehra to drop food and tents a few miles beyond. Temporarily
birds of peace instead of war, they do immensely more to soothe the highly Islamic,
highly conservative, bearded mountain people than the reams of silly propaganda on
glossy paper put out by the US information services in Pakistan.

Their visibility makes relief choppers terrific propaganda, for good or for worse.
This is undoubtedly why the Pakistani government refused an Indian offer to send
in helicopters for relief work in and around Muzzafarabad, the flattened capital
of Pakistani administered Kashmir. In spite of a much celebrated peace process, Pakistan
has also not issued visas to Indian peace groups and activists that seek participation
in the relief effort.

Islamic groups from across the country have also arrived. Some bring relief supplies,
others simply harangue poor goat herders and simple tillers of the soil to tell them
that their misdeeds brought about this catastrophe. None seem to have an explanation
for why GodÝs wrath was especially directed to mosques, madrassas, and schools ˇ
all of which have collapsed in huge numbers. And none say why thousands of the faithful
have been buried alive in this sacred month of fasting.

Now for the bad news: the aid is still too little, often of the wrong kind, and is
not getting to those most affected. Hundreds of destroyed communities lie scattered
deep in the mountains. We saw helicopters attempt aerial drops; landing is impossible
in most places. But people told us that they often miss and the supplies land up
thousands of feet below or in deep forests.

Distribution is haphazard and uncoordinated, done with little thought. In Balakot
we saw relief workers simply throw packets of food and clothes from the top of trucks,
and a subsequent riot. Hustlers thrive, the weak watch passively. Tons of clothes,
lovingly donated and packed by citizens around Pakistan, but mostly useless because
of specific cultural and climatic conditions, are mixed and scattered with garbage
and rubble throughout the town.

For me personally, there was a sense of dejavu. Nearly 31 years ago, on 25th December
1974, a powerful earthquake had flattened towns along the Karakorum Highway killing
nearly 10,000 people. I had traveled with a university team into the same mountains
for similar relief work. Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had made a passionate
appeal for funds around the world, taken a token helicopter trip to the destroyed
town of Besham, and made fantastic promises for rehabilitation. But then hundreds
of millions of dollars in relief funds received from abroad mysteriously disappeared.
Some well-informed people believe that those funds were used to kick off PakistanÝs
secret nuclear program.

Shall the present government do better? This will only be if citizens, and international
donors, demand transparency and accounts are available for public audit.

The clock is ticking. In barely two months from now, the mountains will get their
first snowfall and temperatures will plummet below zero. There are simply not enough
tents, blankets, and warm clothes to go around. Hundreds of tent clusters have come
up, but thousands of families remain out under the skies, facing rain and hail, and
with dread in their hearts. These families have lost everything but the tattered
clothes on their backs. Some even lost the land they had lived upon for generations
ˇ the top soil simply slid away, leaving behind hard rock and rubble. Those without
shelter will die. From a special university fund we have pledged a dozen families
to rebuild their houses but ten thousand or more will be needed in the Mansehra-Balakot-Kaghan
area alone, not to speak of adjoining Kashmir. Relief groups and donors around the
world must make reconstruction of homes their primary goal.